The present invention relates to power consumption of current Digital-to-Analog Converters (DACs), and more particularly, to a method for reducing current consumption of digital-to-analog conversion, and to an associated tri-state current DAC.
Current DACs are widely applied in many technical fields. In a conventional current DAC of a specific type, such as the so-called tri-state current DAC, a specific amount of overall current consumption continuously exists no matter whether the digital values input into the tri-state current DAC are large or small. More specifically, even if the digital values input into the tri-state current DAC are small enough to indicate that the tri-state current DAC should output no current, the specific amount of the overall current consumption continuously exists. As a result, the power is wasted since the tri-state current DAC that outputs no current still sink currents internally. A novel method is therefore required for reducing current consumption of digital-to-analog conversion.